Sarah Hofstadter (2:45)

And I'm Sarah Hofstadter, chairwoman of Profiteero Plus.

Rachel Tippograph (2:48)

And this is a show that talks about what's relevant in commerce for the world's biggest brand. You know, Sarah, it's been a really interesting time to talk with my mother. When my mother was pregnant with me, she worked for Citibank, and this was the 80s. Working for Citibank in the 80s as a woman was a wildly different experience than anything that I've ever gone through. And for her, it was a really isolating experience being a pregnant worker there. And I'm just thinking about how different this pregnancy journey has been for Sami and I professionally compared to my mother and her generation of peers.

Sarah Hofstadter (3:34)

I'll stick myself in the middle of that sandwich generation. As a pregnant woman in the 90s and a working woman in the 90s, I probably had a much more similar experience to your mom than what you and Sammy are experiencing. Because the Internet was relatively new. Google had not launched yet when I.

Unidentified Female Host/Interviewer (3:53)

Was pregnant with Abby.

Sarah Hofstadter (3:54)

So my point of reference on learning about what I was going through, it came from an actual physical book, what to expect when you're expecting. I was the first among my friends to have kids, and I was the only woman in a management position at my company. Navigating how to negotiate time off, navigating how it feels physically after you deliver a baby, and trying to go back to work. There was no sense of community. I just thought, okay, so I suck at doing this. I suck at being pregnant. I suck at delivering babies. I suck caring for babies because I had nobody to talk to. And then if anything was feeling weird, forget about it. Again, who are you talking to about it? But that there's so much more in terms of community. A because you've got. You have like sounding boards and places either to talk to or just to soft. But also just the normalization of so many of these conversations that just simply put, did not exist.

Rachel Tippograph (4:56)

Sammy and I, in our peer set, we have so much to thank to your generation and my mom's generation for paving the way, but also for staying in the workplace.

Unidentified Female Host/Interviewer (5:05)

Right.

Rachel Tippograph (5:06)

Like, I think a big shift is because now when you look at the room and you look around the executive table, there are a bunch of women there who recognize what it is like to be pregnant in the workplace. And then you couple that with social media and all of a sudden the amplification of the women's health experience has entirely changed. And it is now in the limelight in all the ways that it should be.

Unidentified Female Host/Interviewer (5:32)

I think that a lot of it.

Sarah Hofstadter (5:33)

Has to do with the fact that women are also, over the past 20, 25 years, have become more comfortable talking about their issues. I think back to, I don't know exactly the time, but like 25, 30 years ago, we would hear about things for men's health. You heard about Viagra, right? That was a big talk of this town 25, 30 years ago, but nothing about women's issues downstairs. If anything, it was like SNL spoofs, but that was probably the closest you got. And now when you're dealing with, like, all kinds of women's issues and the latest is probably more about perimenopause and menopause, there's more conversation happening right now, which is actually enabling much more commerce to happen. Because now that you say, oh, wow, I'm feeling xyz, wait, there's a solution for that. And you don't have to be awkward in a store. You can buy it online. That barrier has dropped. And the opportunity, frankly, from the capitalism perspective.

Rachel Tippograph (6:35)

And listen, the merchants are hungry for it. And we're going to hear a live case study. It's happening every single day from Caroline, who's the founder and CEO at Organic Care, who has a portfolio of products that play within this women's health space. So let's bring Caroline onto the show today. We are very excited to have Caroline Goodner.

Jackie Cooper (6:56)

Thank you.

Rachel Tippograph (6:57)

Founder and CEO at organicare, onto the show. Hello, Caroline.

Caroline Goodner (7:01)

Hi. How are you guys? I'm very excited to be here.

Rachel Tippograph (7:04)

We're excited. We loved having founders onto the show, given Sarah and my entrepreneurial spirit. So thanks for making time and I think there's no better way to start this episode than to ask you, what is the founding story behind OrganicCare?

Caroline Goodner (7:20)

Sure, thanks for asking. So OrganicCare is the parent company name, not really the one that we promote as much, but the founding story is nine years ago, me and two co founders got together and said, let's bring this very special technology from Italy to the US and weirdly, it was actually for the first aid market back then. Our first brand, Curoxan, was what we founded the company with. Still our brand today. But we evolved and made another set of products under the brand femiclearn, which is a feminine health brand family of products that addresses all the stuff that none of us women really want to deal with. But when it happens, we want to have a solution that really works. So vaginal health issues, yeast infections, BV, herpes, UTIs, all that stuff. The founding story is really one of our partners, our Italian partner had this technology and wanted to introduce it into the consumer market in the US which is of course course a much larger market. My other co founder had a medical device company, really had the kind of regulatory wherewithal to help found the company and I was the operator. So they found me because I had run a company in consumer products before in the health and wellness space. So we all got together and said, okay, let's make this thing work.

Rachel Tippograph (8:42)

And when opportunities like that present itself, how do you go about diligencing it for yourself?

Caroline Goodner (8:49)

It took six months. I did take my time because I had exited a company, did some travel with my family for a year, and then when I came back I was kind of looking for what's that next thing. Having run two companies prior to that, and I really wanted to explore it and think about it. For me what matters is that there's something really different that I'm bringing to the market. I think some people are great maximizers. They can make more out of something and get every little inch out of it. I need something that's really disruptive and I like things that are going to fill a real void in the market. And so for me, this technology was just incredibly powerful. We didn't even know how powerful it was when we started a company. We only really knew about kind of wound care and certain applications of it. But it turned out to be wildly more broad in its application and really disruptive to conditions that had been poorly treated, women struggling through average to mediocre to even bad outcomes and experiences. So I like things that will make a big difference. I don't know if you're familiar with Seth Godin, but he's like a big marketer and he wrote a book called the Purple Cow. And the Purple Cow is like, wow, that's really wild. That's really different. And I subscribe to that kind of philosophy of let's make something so disruptive and different that's going to go a long way to make this product or this company work.

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Unidentified Female Host/Interviewer (12:12)

You seem to have done an exceptional job finding these purple cows. This is not your first rodeo, but you have found it and scaled multiple companies. So how do you see the purple cow when somebody else might just be seeing black and white?

Caroline Goodner (12:26)

You know, it's a good question. I mean, it's something that I have personal familiarity with already. I grew up in a doctor's family and so I kind of had that sort of bias towards medicine and health. Finding those kinds of things really important. My first company was a DNA identification company. A little bit different application of biology and science, but more in a social aspect. Having some working knowledge of what the consumer need might be. I'm really driven by consumer oriented products or services and as a consumer I feel like, you know, knowing a little bit about the area that I'm going into is helpful.

Rachel Tippograph (13:05)

It's interesting in your space of healthcare, it feels like a lot of private equity has moved in and then even like the conglomerates are doing divestitures but still want to acquire innovation. So there's so much energy right now around healthcare, but especially women's health, and that feels like we're a bunch of women right now. On the show. But it's crazy that we're in the year 2025, and all of a sudden women's health is in the spotlight and in multiple ways based on the current climate. Why do you think it took this long?

Caroline Goodner (13:37)

Yeah, thank God that it's kind of happening, but it still needs a lot more of it to happen. You know, women's health investment still gets a tiny, tiny fraction compared to other areas, but I'd be grateful for the progress. I think that we're just having more of a voice. I think there's more conversations like this about women's health. It's becoming more mainstream to talk about things we used to be embarrassed or ashamed about. And so it really does take bringing things out in the spotlight. So thank you for helping be part of that process. I think financially, it's a huge market, right? I mean, like the fact that it just seems to be recently discovered that menopause happens, and now investors are looking at, wow, half the population is going to go through this at some point. So that's a pretty sizable market. Women control a lot of the discretionary spending in their families, so I think it makes good financial sense and they're finally realizing it. And women are willing to speak up about the things they didn't speak up about before and say, hey, this is unpleasant, or I've got a problem, or I don't feel good. And they're talking about it and they're saying, I expect more. I expect something better. And because of those things, and I think it's getting more of the attention that it deserves.

Unidentified Female Host/Interviewer (14:53)

I was wondering about that in particular, you had mentioned menopause, and I was wondering how much of this was reflective of my age and stage that I was hearing more about it. It's most certainly one of those things where there's a combination of people feeling more comfortable talking about things they didn't feel comfortable talking about previously, maybe going back 30 years to Prozac, Nason, and still took so long before people started talking about mental health, feminine care, for things beyond getting your period. Like, talking about getting your period was taboo. You said things like herpes earlier in the conversation, and that's a conversation people would not have had years ago. So I think a lot of it is about removing stigma and appreciating the fact these are experiences more people go through than you realize. And the more we talk about it, the more people can get the kind of support and help that they need, both physically and emotionally. I think that plays a really big role.

Caroline Goodner (15:51)

You are absolutely right. And one of the things that we try to lead with is how common it is. I mean, one in two women get a uti. One in three women get BV or yeast infection. One in five women has genital herpes. These are stats that help normalize these conditions and make women feel less alone, less like the oddball or the kind of person that should be embarrassed about it. And so yes, to destigmatize is let everyone know these are much more common than people think. And the emotional toll they have taken is really important. And like herpes is one of those that I'm still really trying to fight that stigma. I mean it's a skin condition, it can be very uncomfortable having an outbreak and all that. But it has far more stigma than it should, in my opinion. And so the opportunity to talk about it BV and its most telltale symptom of fishy odor. I mean women hate that. And yet we need to talk about it because it's super common and we have solutions that help you get back to normal really quickly.

Unidentified Female Host/Interviewer (16:53)

So one of the things that I think was really good about E commerce in its early days is that it was a place for you to be able to shop for things you didn't necessarily want to bring up to the front counter, if you will. Probably one of the first CPG things I probably ordered was tampons. If I think about it, you know, after books and electronics and all that other stuff, I probably ordered tampons just because I didn't want to bring it to the counter at cvs. So when I think about the diversity of your products, what role does digital play as you think about your distribution?

Caroline Goodner (17:23)

For sure, it's a huge role. I mean it's kind of our most successful marketing avenue. We also are fortunate enough, I think we had the right kind of product that retailers wanted. It's natural ingredients only proven effective through scientific data and fast acting. And so those things are kind of the triumvirate of what the consumer wants and the retailers knew it. So we've also had the physical shelf as a marketing avenue. But digital matters so much. And what I love is honestly the ability to give the consumer the choice on where they want to buy. And particularly for products like ours that are very needs based, you know, you've got an infection, you kind of don't even want to wait the day to get something overnighted to you. A lot of times you just want to go to your local Walgreens or Walmart and pick up a product. So you can start using it in an hour. But digitally educating women on what's available out there, two of our conditions, BV and herpes. I think a lot of women think they have to go to the doctor and get a prescription and that's the only choice they have, and it's not their only choice. Now, educating people on platforms like TikTok, on platforms like Meta, has been a tremendous help to us. And it's hard to find what's going to break through the noise. You just have to try a lot of different creative content to see what's going to resonate and just lots and lots of testing and learning. But digital is an essential part of the consumer education process. We're still trying to work it to be better and better.

Rachel Tippograph (18:54)

One of the things that I think is really fascinating about your business is how fast you were able to get distribution. So what's been the secret to success to gain distribution and consumer credibility?

Caroline Goodner (19:06)

You know, I think it goes back to the disruptive type of product. So the product itself is disruptive. And then we did a lot to make it even more disruptive. We did, you know, kind of lab testing, consumer clinical studies so that we could make really bold claims on package saying 91% of people with BV had all symptoms eliminated. You know, to be able to say it kills 99.9% of Gardner Rella vaginalis, which is the bacteria that causes bv. So we're able to make these claims that a retail buyer is looking at and saying, that is exactly what I want. You know, natural ingredients and proven effective. And, you know, 80% of people get relief in 24 hours. I mean, it was kind of the bringing new consumers into their space because this was a white space. So, yeah, I use BV as an example because it's kind of our hero product. The other ones are very strong as well. That's what the retail buyers have enjoyed about offering something different and having something that's effective, natural and fast in their product assortment to give the consumer more choice. Physical shelves don't have the flexibility of a digital shelf where there's unlimited space. They have to pick and choose. So to have some variety is really important, and I think that's been key.

Rachel Tippograph (20:25)

You didn't make the decision to like launch a Shopify site first. You went to brick and mortar retail first. So what was the decision making behind that?

Caroline Goodner (20:33)

I'd love to say it was highly strategic, but it probably really wasn't. I mean, I think we were lucky in getting good distribution fairly early on. You know, the challenge with that was being an unknown brand and starting with just one SKU and then having to grow into a number of different SKUs and conditions that we serve. But we made it through. And so, you know, I think there's real value in having the DTC side and building first party kind of relationships with your consumers. So we're doing that now. We're playing a bit of catch up. But it was honestly just having the ability to go pretty broad pretty early was a bit of a surprise. But at that point we really just wanted to support our retail partners and that's still our top priority is supporting our brick and mortar retail partners.

Rachel Tippograph (21:22)

So we've talked about the physical shelves having limiting space, the digital shelf having unlimited space. But there is this third shelf which is essentially social media where every single day people are discovering things whether they wanted to or not, with influencers playing a huge role in that. Curious. Like given that you're playing in a regulated space, how you guys engage within the creator influencer community.

Caroline Goodner (21:47)

Yeah, we've tried a lot of different things. We have medical professionals that we work with, we have consumers that we work with, we have people that are professional influencers that we work with. And different things work in different contexts with different messaging. We have to be really careful that none of our influencers make any claims or say anything that we're not allowed to say. So we have pretty strict guidelines on that. But you know, it's kind of unknown until you test it. Who's going to resonate the most, how the messages land? Is it more that professional? I think we tend to do better with the more professional kind of influencers. I think because of the kind of claims that we make on efficacy, a lot of the new entrants into feminine care might lean more toward personal care and nice to haves and you know, kind of more about washes or wipes or whatever. And ours are more kind of condition based problem solution. So that might be a little bit why what's worked for us has tended toward more the medical influencer people. We're continuing to try a lot of different things and realize that there is not just one solution that you've got to, you gotta have a whole array of options in order to make it work.

Rachel Tippograph (23:01)

When you look at the total marketing investment, what do you think healthcare brands should be investing in social today versus other channels?

Caroline Goodner (23:09)

I mean it's a reasonable chunk of our overall budget. I don't know that I'd want to put a number on it because it's A moving target. It's one of the things that is really scalable. And so if we found some silver bullets that really worked well, we would scale them. But you can also waste a lot of money on different tactics that don't work that well. We're still an emerging brand. We're not a big brand. We have to test and learn small and then scale what seems to be working, working, blocking and tackling that we do all the time, that works well and provides that solid return, experimental things that we're always kind of testing and learning and figuring that out.

Rachel Tippograph (23:45)

Got it. We gotta ask you our famous last question, which is, what's the bravest thing you've ever done?

Caroline Goodner (23:51)

That was such a hard question to think about. I appreciate getting the heads up because I don't think anybody necessarily thinks they're being brave, but it is one that has a personal and a professional component. I guess I'll answer like on my second company I had started, it was a big investment and I actually had just moved to Austin from Houston where my first company was. And after a couple of years in, I had a 2 year old and a 4 year old at the time. And I sort of realized, gosh, am I doing the right thing? I ended up selling that company in order to spend more time with my kids and absolutely am glad that I did that. I realized about eight months in that I needed to figure out a balance that wasn't for me. But it was great to have had the opportunity to sort of explore what is right for me from that point on. Once I became a CEO at the third company, I felt much more grounded in that balance of motherhood, which I think a lot of women can sometimes struggle with even today. I hope that gets better over time. But that was probably. It was a scary thing to do because I had put a lot into that company. And to say, oh, for largely personal.

Unidentified Female Host/Interviewer (24:58)

Reasons, I'm going to get out, that's pretty remarkable.

Rachel Tippograph (25:01)

Very bold.

Caroline Goodner (25:02)

Yeah.

Rachel Tippograph (25:02)

And I'm sure meant a lot to your kids too.

Caroline Goodner (25:05)

I hope so.

Rachel Tippograph (25:08)

Well, Caroline, thank you so much for sharing your story. We'll be watching what's happening within your portfolio. It's such an exciting space to be in. And thanks again for your wisdom.

Caroline Goodner (25:18)

Thank you so much for having me on and thank you guys for what you're doing. It's really a big societal benefit. I appreciate it.

Rachel Tippograph (25:25)

If you like what you heard and you want to check out another episode where we do talk about women's health and commerce, go check out an episode we probably did a year ago with Lauren from Perrigo. If you like what you heard, write a review. Tell a friend. Thanks for listening.

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Jackie Cooper (27:00)

Hi, I'm Jackie Cooper, Global Chief Brand Officer at Edelman and the host of Touch of Truth, a new podcast launching on the Adweek Podcast Network. My dad gave me this incredibly smart piece of advice. Meet everyone once. As a result, I've met some of the most fascinating and inspiring people on the planet. Now on Touch of Truth, we're coming centre stage and sharing the mic to experience stories of truth, insights and visions for the future that will challenge your way of thinking. Touch of Truth is available wherever you listen to podcasts. New episodes come out every Tuesday. I do hope to see you there.